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note: This is an as-yet untested Draft Scenario, so some playtesting may be required to make it work well.

Watch-station x-25, hidden within the ice-teroid belt around the dead-star Glork, is tasked with monitoring enemy transmissions and broadcasting our propaganda while jamming that of the enemy along our spin-ward border.

Trouble is, it’s gone silent and the last report was of an enemy fleet trawling through the location, presumably looking for the station. If they capture the station and get enough time with our machines they can break our secret codes. And that could mean not only changing the whole code system again, but also leaving in the lurch all our agents who won’t know the code system has been busted.

So we must burn at full speed to find out for sure, to see if the enemy has Watch-station x-25, and if so to Destroy it!

Time for another scenario. This one is designed assuming two players neither of whom have read the scenario, and a 3rd to set it up and oversee things.

Player Info:
Forces: Equal construction points for each side, of a size that suits both players

Set Up: divide the map in half, at a slight angle, with a wide band of asteroids or ice-teroids ideally 3 hexes wide if you have enough pebbles or the like. At the centre of this place a model or marker for the derelict Watch-Station. The station is manned by only a tiny crew, so is similar in size to a war rocket.

The Derelict: The derelict watch station is made to handle a lot of collisions and so is quite heavilly armored. it is Defence 3. However if currently unoccupied a watch station can be set to self-destruct by a boarding party, though this will mean entering the asteroid/ice-teroid field to do so. Each side is trying to get to the Station first, examine it, which takes 1 turn, then either blow it up of try and keep it intact and in their possession by the end of the battle.

Overseer only beyond this point! SPOILERS! Players should read no further!

“What is it Galacteers?” growled Imperial Commander Kurigalzu. Things were not good. Captain Shulme had discovered more strange devices on Iratus Est Draco and had nearly lost his life battling the Valkeeri for it. Then that damned Dr Axon, more robot than man, had sent him off dangerously close to the sun to get more readings pulling the fleet every which way leaving all manner of vital assets vulnerable or tied up and then the Watch Station in orbit around Iratus Est draco had gone silent but for a momentary static signal. Now as his fleet was heading to the watch-station Ace McGuire’s fleet had turned up to really ruin his day.

“This systems sun is in terrible danger, something is using the MacGuffinite of Dormientes Draco to turn it into a Black Hole! You must allow our scientists access to the ruined towers of Dormientes, the entire Galaxy is in peril.”

“This is an internal Imperial matter. Imperial science will resolve this. You have no jurisdiction, this system is now part of the Empire of Marduk. Leave now or you will be destroyed!”

Ace McGuire slammed the bottom of his fist against the wall.“The idiotic fools! This is no time for pride or nationalism or other such petty squabbles. This black hole would threaten all of us!”

“So what do we do now Ace?” asked Commander Jason.

“There’s only one option. If we can’t get the scientists there with permission then we will do so without it! All ships, prepare to punch through the Imperial fleet!”

But out in the depths of space another force had heard the static-like signal. Sleek rockets slid through the void like hungry sharks ready to descend on the Imperial Watch-station in a feeding frenzy….

As Jason hadn’t been able to play in the saturday game at the Sleeping Dragon game store and had gone a couple weeks without a game of War Rocket and was super-keen to play we played at Taphyls shed on a sunday.

Taphyl had to feed some animals first, but wanted to see our class 3 and 4 rockets in action so i quickly devised a scenario to cover that. There were several objectives. The Galacteers were firstly trying to get scientists, carried on the class 2, 3 and 4 rockets, to the Zenithian towers on planet Dormientes and the Empire wanted to stop any Galacteer interference. There was also the matter of the Watch Station and it’s ‘secret’. The players hadn’t yet seen much of The Missing Princess serial story so didn’t know the Princess was on the station and that this game could direct the story! I told them every faction could gain from that secret and the station was a valuable asset to hold. The Galacteers and Imperial fleet would start at the opposite end of the large table from the Watch Station and Taphyl would get to bring on his force once the game was underway from any table edge once he was able to join in.

It’s out everybody!
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Get it now and begin your own exciting adventures! And of course expect to see even more of the thrilling Retroverse here as the adventures and serial stories of our own games will continue!

Check your charge-capacitors, turn all the dials to maximum and pull those levers and launch into the adventure of Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today!

Captain Shulme ran his fingers through his beard as he scanned the rocky landscape and the ruined ancient buildings of the world Iratus Est Draco below, looking for any sign of the missing Princess Taegan. Even if they find her there was evidence from the Valkeeri that there was a chance a pod-person clone had replaced the real Princess, but Emperor Marduk is all-seeing and a counterfeit would not fool the Princesses’ father. The orders were to scour every mile of the surface of the worlds in this system, find the Princess and take her to her father. The Valkeeri had struck the watchstation orbiting Iratus Est draco in force and so it wasn’t surprising when Kurush called from the radarscope of clear readings of Valkeeri rocket-pulses. They were headed towards one of the ruined cities, like all those in this system it was smashed with what seemed to be atomic warfare and abandoned so many millenia ago that not a trace of radioactivity remained, there must be something there of value.

What were the Alien women up to? And did it have anything to do with the Zenithian towers, the weakening sun or the missing Princess? He would wring the information from the survivors!

“All rockets: Intercept and attack!”

I got a call from Taphyl during the week asking if I was up for another game of War Rocket and for showing our friend Mirium how to play. So I quickly gathered my things together, remembering my camera this time, and went round for an afternoon/evening of gaming socialising and a very nice dinner. Mirium had some job applications to do first so we started with a small game between Taphyl and I.

Captain Atrius fumed quietly as he sat in the command chair of the Class II Imperial Raptor Rocket The Shahin. It was difficult enough sitting in the position normally taken by the Princess instead of his usual position to her right. Especially as he couldn’t go anywhere without the Princesses pet Vyper-bat Atalleph left in his care coiled around his arm or hanging on his shoulder, though it did help him keep the Princess in mind. It was worse that helping the Magi, the scientists of the Empire, determine the secret central hub of the strange tower ruins the Zenithians had activated and their dangerous effects upon the star Draco meant that he and much of the Princesses’ fleet had been taken off the search for their missing leader. Worse yet was that the mastermind behind the Magi’s operations Magi Lord Dr Axon had implied that the search for the Princess should be abandoned altogether… but the most infuriating of all was that the very same Dr Axon had insisted on being on board the very same Rocket as Atrius!

Normally he got on well with battle-magi, those soldiers of the empire most entrusted with the powerful secrets of the Empires advanced science and engineering. That Dr Axon was more machine than man, after a grievous wounding in battle his vast swathe of knowledge resulted in him determined too valuable to the Empire to be allowed to die. His brain having been transferred into a translucent jar atop a life-sustaining mechanical apperatus, a humanoid body all too reminiscent of the Robot Legions for anyone’s comfort, was disturbing in itself, but it was the attitude that seemed so incompatible with the honourable noble demeanour of the warriors of the Emperors rocket fleet that was worst. This was the first citizen of the Empire Atrius felt he could not and should not trust. And right now he had hooked his mysterious devices to the rockets engines doing who knows what as they scanned, like the rest of the class 2 Imperial rockets on Dormientes Draco, along a grid search pattern measuring the strange energies at work. At least, thought the Captain, the Magi are staying in the engine access compartment…. and that’s when the saucers attacked!

Once again it’s time for another exciting battle report from a saturday morning game of War Rocket down at my local game store The Sleeping Dragon. Alas due to a late night Jason wasn’t able to join in (but hopefully will be in the next report) so Taphyl and I battled it out. This time Taphyl wanted to try the Zenithians rather than the Valkeeri so i let him try with my currently-small Zenithian force.

We started setting up the table with the familiar belt-of-orion placement of strange towers, then Taphyl placed some other ruined buildings from the ancient past of Dormientes Draco along with the floating Ice-teroids created by the towers drawing the indescribably rare mineral MacGuffinite in prodigious quantities from deep in the ground as Taphyl asked “What will the objective be?”

Alerted by 7th-dimensional sensors to the scanning taking place by Imperial rockets around the world of planet Dormientes Draco the Zenithians have been tasked with capturing some Imperial scientists to find out how much the Empire knows about what is happening and see if the Empire is a threat to the Saucer-men’s terrible plans for our 4 dimensions of the universe! While on the Raptor…

“All Hands, battle stations!” Called Captain Atrius as the Zenithians swarmed in to the attack.
“Which foe Captain?” demanded the authoritative mechanical voice of Magi Dr Axon, sounding much more acceptably Imperial for a moment.
“Zenithians closing fast, a class 2 and 3 class 1’s”
“Capture the Class 2 Beta-Z saucer at all costs captain, interrogating their crew could give us the vital information we seek, help us save the galaxy and get you back to searching for your Princess!”
“Raptor to all Scorpions, Raptor to all Scorpions, class 2 saucer to be boarded, repeat: class 2 saucer not to be destroyed!”

Taphyl scrutinizes the Zenithian stats before we start (and unfortunately misses something important which we discover much later)

Note: this blogpost was drafted over a year ago! A lot of events have disrupted blogging and especially editing and publishing, some of these are awesome and exiting and others have been tough and challenging. But the backlog of battle reports and fiction will be filled in as time permits and there will be lots of new stuff to come!

The Valkeeri Commander in Absentia looked through the file from the spy amongst the Imperial ranks. The poor deluded lovesick fool would do anything just to see the face of Sub-Captain Mira Hati smile on the encoded spaceophone screen and as always the information was invaluable. Fleet Captain Zimara, current leader of the Valkeeri forces of House St’wart in this region of space was still alive! Captured by the Imperial forces after she had convinced the Imperial fools into helping her get her vengeance on the Zenithians for replacing the previous Fleet Captain with a pod-person clone copy hypno-programmed into leading Valkeeri forces into making bad decisions that would have crippled them had the subterfuge not been discovered by superior Valkeeri art-science. But even someone as headstrong and wilful as Fleet Captain Zimara might break under the cruel and ruthless hands of the Empire and their barbaricly brutal mind-probes. They were holding her in a small spacestation towed in and set in orbit around the planet Iratus Est Draco, one world out away from the strangely unstable sun, named Draco by the ancients, from the mysterious MacGuffinite rich world of Dormientes Draco. To safeguard the Valkeeri secrets they needed to rescue her, to find what she may have learned of the Zenithian plans they must rescue her, for loyalty they must rescue her!

This week I didn’t make it in to the Sleeping Dragon store as I, and others, had to catch up with some people socially. But in the afternoon Taphyl and I played at his house. Continuing on from the tale of vengeance last week Taphyl was quite enthusiastic when I suggested a mission to rescue the survivors from the last game now helplessly in my clutches (Mua-Ha-Ha-Haaaaaaa!). Alas I forgot my camera but Taphyl had one handy so on we went!

The battlefield incorporating Dormientes Draco and it’s neighbour Iratus Est Draco.(“Hey look, they put the moon back in on Dormientes Draco, call the continuity police!”“Shhh stop talking over the movie!”)

Battle report continues after this break (i.e. click ‘continue reading’ to see the rest)Continue reading →

Note: Keen eyed viewers may notice that the script for this chapter was clearly intended to be broadcast before the proceeding piece, but we retain it here in original broadcast order

Galacteers! We have deployed a series of spy satellites to monitor both enemy activity and strange radiations in the system of Dormientes Draco. Alas it seems the Imperial fleet there doesn’t like us looking at the mess that macguffinite engine thing they took off the Zenithians is cooking up and especially that it will give us solid warning of any more imperial activity in the region, now they are on an intercept course. It’s your job to stop them. The data from these satellites is crucial. Protect Those Satellites!

Alas Saturday I didn’t end up playing War Rocket so Jason and in organised for a Tuesday game. So once again the wargame room of my local gamestore would be filled with the roar of atomic motors and the pew-pew of raygun beams.

I was especially excited to show off my solution for all the scratched paintwork my imperial rockets got from transport:

So I decided I really wanted some satellites for the scenario in the war rocket rulebook involving the Imperium out to destroy Galacteer early warning satellites in order to invade. But the trouble was… what to make them out of?

I had thought of something Sputnik like but my ideas seemed too fragile.

Then, my sweetheart pointed out something cool!

OK yes it’s sweet and raspberry tasting and in packaging that looks appropriate for zero-G eating but why is it relevant to making model satellites?Continue reading →

Listen up Galacteers, we lost some good men against the Imperials on Dormientes Draco and some of them were carrying some vital Intel in their heads about what is going on with the MacGuffinite on that world. Now that the decoding department have translated the latest batch of Imperial internal propaganda broadcasts, they’re bragging that many of our men were taken prisoner and are being made to mine the MacGuffinite! We can’t let that insult stand! Also with the knowledge they now have from working with the… stuff, might at last explain what the Zenithians have been up to; the secret of Dormientes Draco and its high content of MacGuffinite. We will rescue them all eventually, but right now we need that Intel so we’re going to risk many lives for few to get at the secret of that world and with any luck we might find out what we need to stabilise that region of space and push the Imperial expansion back to their own turf. SoGalacteers, to your rockets! To the RESCUE!

Saturday was time once more for another chapter of fun playing War Rocket at my local game store The Sleeping Dragon. Jason was eager for a game and while I’ve been working on some satellites for one of the missions in the main book Jason was keen to try and rescue some of his brave Galacteers taken captive and forced to work in the MacGuffinite mines from our last game.

So once more, dear viewers, we take you to the barren plains of that lost world Dormientes Draco, perhaps the richest source of MacGuffinite in the entire galaxy!

We see that the strange ancient ruins, with their weird Zenithian technological enhancements, have continued to draw clouds of MacGuffinite ore from deep underground. The strange process causing strange ice-teroids to form around the ore in increasing clouds of dangerous debris.

Or in other words Jason’s generous partner Sam gave me another massive haul of the excellent plastic fishtank stuff! And seeing as it was so great last time we really piled it on this game.

I couldn’t resist adding little swishing tails to most of the clouds i set up as we readied the playing field.

Jason and I rather improvised the scenario for the rescue. The towers were as they were last game, and the aim for the Galacteers was to try and get 5 prisoners out of the towers. To try and balance that out I was only to start with my Class 1s and 2s on the field. On the 2nd turn I’d roll for each of the remaining two powerhouses, the Class 3 and Class 4, and on a result of a 9 or 10 they’d enter play. This would improve each subsequent turn as a 7+ then a 5+ etc. And I would roll randomly to determine which of the two long sides these would come in from. Also I’d set up my Class 1’s and 2’s first before Jason would decide which of the two short sides he would enter from.

So I set up two patrols, a pair of Class 1 Scorpions and a Class 2 Raptor paired with another Scorpion.

The rockets of Princess Taegan’s Fleet circle about the strange towers guarding the prisoners as they slave in the radioactive mine

At last the secret of the Zenithians near-indestructible towers was revealed. Not defense installations but instead some mixture of advanced interdimensional technologies and the lost sciences of the ancient mysterious ruins that plague Dormientes Draco, the forgotten greatness of its now primitive inhabitants scared into superstitious regression by the horrors of advanced super-science unleashed foolishly upon themselves many millennia past driving them underground into the worlds cavern-riddled interior. Now, the riches uncovered, the powers of the galaxy raced to secure the prodigious quantities of the powerful fuel ingredient MacGuffinite these towers had exposed… and the Imperium still sought sign of the mysterious fate of the corageous and beloved Imperial Princess Taegan…

Once again I return to the Sleeping Dragon on a Saturday morning for the fun and excitement of War Rocket!

Following on from the Lost Episode that was the last game (I’ve lost the cord for the old camera so that report will turn up eventually hopefully) I got a brand new camera (in a nice shiny Imperial Red) to take some pics of the game, had my nails painted a nice old gold to match the rest of my colour scheme and went into battle once more against Jason’s noble Galacteers.

Yep I even painted my fingernails in an Imperial Gold to match my Rocket Fleet!

We decided on another hex-mat game so again we are using the store’s lovely Hotz mat. We flipped through the rulebooks scenarios and decided on the mining conflict, with towers instead of asteroid mines.

Jason’s Galacteers in all their fully painted glory. Note the lovely effect of subtle star dots he’s painted on the bases!

And yes, even with a new digital camera I can still only take blurry pics.. ah well 🙂
We also added some excellent asteroid fields to the table that Jason had brought along.

The strange towers drew the MacGuffinte ore up from the earth causing great floating ice-toroids to form about them in the desert sky!